Jewish Studies Commons^™

"The Antichrist Tradition In Antiquity: Antimessianism In Second Temple And Early Christian Literature" [Review]/Kusio, Mateusz, Rodrigo Galiza

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Rodrigo Galiza.

Mashiah: Messianism In Jewish Apocalyptic Literature Of The Second Temple Period, Fred R. De Leon

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This Thesis challenges notions that have dominated biblical scholarship for more than a hundred years. Up until the end of the twentieth century scholars uniformly believed that the concept of a suffering Messiah was not part of early first century CE Judaism. It was believed to a be a Christian creation. There is however startling evidence of messianic precursors to Jesus, including one who is introduced as the 'Prince of the Congregation' in recently published fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is not surprising since the authors of the Tanakh lay the groundwork for an evolving and malleable concept …

Classics Revisited Review Essay: The Prophets By Abraham Joshua Heschel, John C. Merkle

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Jakubovitz, Bruce, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Bruce Jakubovitz, born 1956, was the son of Bronx born parents and grandson of immigrants from Hungary, Lithuania, and Poland. He lived in a three bedroom apartment with his three siblings and parents across from St. James Park. The area was predominantly Jewish, Italian, and Irish, and the kids would play in the street and hang out along the stoops on 191st Street. Growing up in a kosher, Orthodox home, Jakubovitz would go to synagogue every Saturday morning and he could not go out to play with his friends on Shabbat. Yet, all the different ethnic and religious groups got …

Designing For Yiddish Drama, Naomi Marin

Theater Summer Fellows

"Designing for Yiddish Drama" explores the questions of the relationship between culture and design and what influences a design or designer. It also demonstrates two designs for a Yiddish play, "The Dybbuk," by S. Ansky.

Rudnick, Stuart, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Stuart Rudnick was born in 1951. His family had moved up from the Lower East Side to the Sedgwick Projects in the West Bronx. They lived there until 1968, when they moved to Co-op City because the demographics of the neighborhood were changing and they wanted more space. It was seen as a step up. When Rudnick was growing up there, he remembers it as very safe and no one locked their doors. There were many kids in the building to play games outside in the street, games that did not require buying a lot like stickball. The project is …

Malasky, Michael, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Michael Melasky, born 1957, grew up in the Marble Hill public housing project that was created for veterans of World War Two and their families, until his family moved to Co-op City in 1969. His grandparents immigrated from Poland and started their families on the Lower East Side then the South Bronx, but most of their family was killed in the Holocaust. Quoting Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” Melasky describes growing up in a cramped and diverse environment in the turbulent 1960s. There were always other kids around to play with, …

Sweet, Harry, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Harry Sweet grew up on Boston Road and moved with his family to the public housing projects near Crotona Park and the Cross Bronx Expressway as a teenager. He remembers finding it impressive as a child that kids got to cross the street to Herman Ritter Junior High School, across from their apartment building, by themselves and how important it was when he got to do it. He walked to PS 50 and would walk home and back for lunch. Sweet remembers his elementary school class as mixed Jewish, Italian, and black, but as most of the Jewish and Italian …

Jacobs, Stuart, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Stuart Jacobs’ parents were both born in New York City to Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, his mother living in the Pelham Parkway area of the Bronx and his father living in Brooklyn. Born in 1952, Jacobs lived in the Pelham Parkway neighborhood, which he remembers as 98% Jewish, until he graduated from college and moved to Queens. He remembers a close knit neighborhood, with many people he remains friends with to this day, and everything in the neighborhood being shut down for the Jewish holidays. He played sports in the elementary school schoolyard and in the street, and consistently …

Becker, Ann Joy, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Ann Joy Becker, born 1959, grew up outside of Parkchester on Thieriot Avenue in the Archer Stratton Co-op. Her grandparents, immigrants from Eastern Europe, were peddlers on Pelham Parkway. She attended PS 102 and Columbus High School, because her mother did not want her to go to James Monroe High School because it was considered a bad school and dangerous for a white girl. The co-op and surrounding area was mostly Jewish and Italian, with minorities on the other side of the highway. Becker explains there were more issues with other white ethnic groups than with minorities at that time. …

Newman, Ellen, Sophia Maier Garcia

Bronx Jewish History Project

Ellen Newman was born in 1953 in Bronx Hospital. Both sets of grandparents had immigrated to New York City as young children and her parents were both raised in the Bronx. She attended PS 114, by Yankee Stadium, Macombs Junior High School, Taft High School, and Lehman College for both her bachelor’s and master’s. Her family would go to upstate New York in the summers, and her father was an accountant and her mother was a bookkeeper. Newman lived in the Highbridge neighborhood of the Bronx until her family moved to Scott Towers, a Mitchell Lama Co-op. The Highbridge neighborhood …

Feminism And #Metoo In The Lives Of Orthodox Jewish Women, Rebecca S. Battin

University Honors Theses

In recent years, the #MeToo movement in the US has normalized discussing sexual harassment and assault against women, as well as encouraged survivors to come forward with their experiences like never before. Though this movement has undoubtedly affected much of secular and even religious America, how much has the #MeToo movement affected the more extreme, conservative communities of Orthodox Judaism? Though some research has been conducted as to the effects of the patriarchy and sexual assault on women in some Jewish communities, there is little research regarding how the women in these communities may have been impacted by the recent …

'The Street Scene Prologue': Holocaust Survivors, The American Nazi Party, And Exodus, Jason Van

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

During the early 1960s when the American Civil Rights movement was beginning to gain momentum, another movement across the world was taking place to solidify the newly formed country of Israel as a sovereign state. To commemorate the foundation of Israel, American director Otto Preminger created the film Exodus, adapted from a book of the same name by Leon Uris. George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, decided to take action by traveling throughout the country with his closest members to protest the film. Rockwell and his group of Nazis were outraged by the pro-Zionist depictions and the …

In The Image Of… Towards A Trans Talmud, Laurence Myers Reese

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In the Image of... (towards a Trans Talmud) is a body of work by artist Laurence Myers Reese that works to examine Jewish paradigms of gender through the transgender lens. Reading the archive diagonally, he examines historical Jewish writings, from poet and Rabbi Kalonymous Ben Kalonymous to “false Messiah” Shabbatai Tzvi. Contextualizing contemporary Jewish with notable exhibitions from the Jewish Museum New York and Spertus Museum, Chicago, In the Image of… draws from artists, writers, and Rabbis who use a gendered lens to interrogate Judaism. These include Yael Kanarek, who has worked to re-gender the entire Torah, Rena Yehuda Newman, …

Shakespeare’S The Merchant Of Venice, Qanon And Blood Libel, Georga Hackworth

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, QAnon, and Blood Libel explores the contemporary relevance of the work of Shakespeare. The Jewish blood libel was first mentioned by Socrates. Whether Socrates was literal or using an allegory is unknown. What is known, is the story was repeated and used as the basis for a conspiracy theory targeting Jews stating they kill Christian Children to make unleavened Passover bread. This idea has resulted in stereotypes and Jews being the scapegoats for all the ills of the world. William Shakespeare played on this idea in The Merchant of Venice, using a blood libel to …

From Handmaids To Princesses: How Identity And Politics Impact Definitions Of Biblical Rape, Gabrielle R. Isaac-Herzog

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The politics of sex in the Bible are complex. They are impacted and limited by the time of the stories, as well as the political landscape and laws of the region. However, since many modern religions have emerged from the text of the Hebrew Bible, it is important for scholars to continue the work of critically examining the texts in the contemporary context. This paper offers a textual analysis of several biblical stories through a feminist and decolonial lens. Through the generation of a taxonomy by which these stories can be categorized, this paper posits that the biblical definitions of …

The Vigil, Daniel Ross Goodman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of The Vigil (2021), directed by Keith Thomas.

"Becoming Jewish, Believing In Jesus: Judaizing Evangelicals In Brazil" [Review]/Carpenedo, Manoela, Rodrigo Galiza

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Rodrigo Galiza.

"Madaba Plains Project 9: The 2004 Season At Tall Al-Umayri And Subsequent Studies" [Review]/Herr, L. G., D. R. Clark., And L. T. Geraty, Owen Chesnut

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Owen Chesnut.

Tantura, Sheila J. Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Tantura (2022), directed by Alon Schwarz.

Beacons Of Peace And Tolerance: The Politics Of Memory In Judeo-Moroccan Cultural And Historical Institutions, Audrey Ming An Hirsch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Bayt Dakira, a historical, religious, cultural, and academic institution located in the heart of Essaouira’s old medina, seeks to conserve Jewish-Moroccan memory and promote values of peace and tolerance as exemplified by the city’s history of Jewish-Muslim coexistence. As an institution dedicated to conserving the culture of a people that have all but virtually emigrated from Morocco, Bayt Dakira’s purpose is initially unclear. This study uncovers the ways in which Bayt Dakira is an example of a seemingly apolitical institution being wielded to advance national and international political agendas. As an officially apolitical place of cultural and academic exchange, Bayt …

Pathway To The Shoah: The Protocols, "Jewish Bolshevism", Rosenberg, Goebbels, Ford, And Hitler, David M. Crowe

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

In the dark months after the defeat at Stalingrad in 1943, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Party’s strident, virulently anti-Semitic propaganda minister, wrote in his diary that he had “devoted exhaustive study to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” despite the fact that some argued that “they were not suited to present-day propaganda.” After rereading them, he concluded that “we can use them very well,” since The Protocols were “as modern today as they were when published for the first time.” The same day, May 13, 1943, he met with Hitler, who told his propaganda minister that he thought they …

My Favorite Thing Is Monster Theory: Horror Comics And Demonstrating Difference In Emil Ferris’S "My Favorite Thing Is Monsters", Jennifer Rossberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017) by Emil Ferris opens with the same etymological analysis of the word monster as Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s landmark disability studies article, “From Wonder to Error: A Discourse on Freak Genealogy” (1991). The protagonist of Ferris’s swirling, sketchbook-style thriller, Karen Reyes, is a mixed-race queer adolescent growing up in noirish 1960’s Chicago who longs to be a werewolf so she can bite and save her cancer-afflicted mother. After fleeing an imaginary, pitchfork-wielding M.O.B.—an acronym for “mean, ordinary, & boring” people—Karen explains that, “The dictionary says the word monster comes from the Latin word ‘monstrum’ which …

The World Is Your Pulpit: A Research-Based Performance On The Broder Singers, Amanda Seigel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My capstone project is a research-based performance about the Broder Singers, the first Yiddish actors. They performed primitive musical and theatrical pieces in Yiddish beginning in the mid-19th century in non-theatrical spaces such as taverns and gardens, in Eastern Europe. They were part of a larger movement creating secular Yiddish culture beyond the religiously proscribed expressions of traditional Jewish life. Largely born and raised in traditional communities themselves, they mocked wealthy religious community leaders, utilized gender drag, and compassionately portrayed impoverished people. This white paper explores the context of their work and draws on primary sources such as memoirs, published …

The Mystical Exodus In Jungian Perspective: Transforming Trauma And The Wellsprings Of Renewal, B. Les Lancaster

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

No abstract provided.

Jewish Experience In Huntsville, Alabama, Reagan Grimsley, Charlie Gibbons

Summer Community of Scholars (RCEU and HCR) Project Proposals

No abstract provided.

The Emergence Of Spirit In Extended Reality And The Speculative Synagogue, Ian Gonsher

Scholarly Research

This essay outlines topics for further design research by posing questions about the way emerging technologies, particularly social media and extended reality, might provide new affordances for deeper spiritual consciousness. Drawing on Hegel’s concept of Spirit, as well as the Jewish mystical tradition, this essay explores how discourse, manifested through community and culture, can be imagined as the mind of God. From this foundation, we explore speculative design scenarios for the development of sacred spaces in augmented and extended reality, in particular synagogues, as we consider the prototype of the synagogue, which was once situated on the temple mount in …

How Tales Of Blood Libel Travel: Depictions Of Jews In Fifteenth-Century European World Chronicles, Rachel Bard

Fasciculus Temporum

This paper considers the correlation between the popularity of Werner Rolevinck’s Fasciculus Temporum and other world chronicles, and the antisemitic tropes and blood libel accusations directed against Jewish communities in later medieval Europe.

The Fasciculus repeats many stock tales of Jewish ritual murder, including a relatively little-known story from Bern, Switzerland, that Rolevinck may have adapted from the Berner Chronik. This paper also considers the connection the first Spanish printing of the Fasciculus Temporum, in Seville in 1480, with the only known Jewish ritual murder accusation in Spain, which dates to 1490, and which in turn may have been …

Intro To Jewish American Literature, Amy W. Kratka

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

For As Long As The Lamp Is Burning: A One-Act Play, Jon Papernick

Emerson Authors, Researchers, & Creators

Miriam Bravermann, (Mama) a Holocaust survivor living in 1990’s Jerusalem believes the Nazis have stolen the mezuzah off her door post. Her adult son Avshalom is concerned that she’s beginning to lose her grip on reality and wants her to move in with him and his family. Mama has taken on the near holy responsibility of remembering, and refuses to accept that she may actually be forgetting.